So Sad Today by Melissa Broder

Inspired by her own experience with panic attacks and dread, acclaimed poet Melissa Broder wrote So Sad Today , exploring the existential themes of sex, death, love, low self-esteem, addiction, and the drama of waiting for the universe to text you back. With insights as sharp as her humor, Broder explores what it really means to be a person in this modern world.

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

Shortlisted for this year’s Wellcome Prize, Amy Liptrot’s intensely personal memoir, The Outrun, explores her father’s history of mental illness, Liptrot’s own struggles with alcoholism, and how a return to her childhood home of Orkney has led her down a path of recovery and redemption.

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

In Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig reflects on a life with depression and anxiety with wry humour. This personal memoir also provides a short history of depression and explores the reasons behind its increased prevalence in modern society.

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Jenny Lawson says ‘You can’t experience pain without also experiencing the baffling and ridiculous moments of being fiercely, unapologetically, intensely and (above all) furiously happy…’. In this memoir, she describes her battles with depression and anxiety and her quest to overcome them by saying yes to absurdist opportunities and making the good times gloriously good.

Negroland by Margo Jefferson

Margo Jefferson grew up as a member of the black elite in pre-Civil Rights Chicago. Her access to money, education and privilege was a double-edged sword, and Jefferson explains that 'Negro privilege had to be circumspect: impeccable but not arrogant; confident yet obliging; dignified, not intrusive.’ Negroland is an important addition to this list for its discussion of experiencing depression as a black woman in America, coupled with a cultural history of duty, obligation, and discipline.

Everything is Teeth by Evie Wyld and Joe Sumner

In this graphic memoir from Australian author Evie Wyld, anxiety literally manifests itself as a shark. Joe Sumner’s evocative illustrations hint at a sharp-toothed creature that hovers around the edges of her childhood as she deals with bullying, adolescence, and her father’s drinking.

Hyperbole and a Half by Alexandra Brosh

Allie Brosh was known for stories about her childhood, her love of cake, and life with her ‘simple’ dog all celebrated with her trademark naive illustrations on her blog, Hyperbole and a Half; but it is the moving and darkly comic accounts of her struggles with mental health that have been critically acclaimed, with many medical and psychology experts, naming them as some of the most authentic depictions of depression.

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing

‘You can be lonely anywhere,’ writes Olivia Laing, ‘but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people.’ In The Lonely City, the journalist and critic fuses her own personal story of living in New York with the lives of artists who have tackled loneliness in their work, including Edward Hopper, David Wojnarowicz, and Andy Warhol.

You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

Felicia Day’s struggles with crippling anxiety, depression and gaming addiction are addressed with an authentic and sympathetic voice in her hilarious and inspirational memoir, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)).

Agorafabulous! by Sara Benincasa

One of the funniest and most poignant books ever written about a mental illness, Agorafabulous! is an entertaining, raw, and unforgettable account of how comedian Sara Benincasa conquered her agoraphobia, depression, and unruly hair to become ‘a (relatively) high-functioning professional smartass.’

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

Andrew Solomon draws on his personal struggles with depression in The Noonday Demon. This examination of the illness in cultural and scientific terms includes interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and politicians, drug designers, and philosophers.